


Swimming Lessons

by MashpotatoeQueen5



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aang is a sweetheart, All of them are babies, Beaches, Canon Disabled Character, Children, Competition, Day At The Beach, Domestic Fluff, Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, Families of Choice, Family Fluff, Fluff, Found Family, Friendship, Games, Gen, Happy, Happy Ending, Healing, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Child Neglect, Love, One Big Happy Family, Picnics, Platonic Relationships, Post-100 Year War (Avatar TV), Sibling Love, Swimming, THEY DESERVE IT, Team Bonding, Team as Family, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Toph Beifong and Zuko are Siblings, Toph Beifong-centric, Toph Being Awesome, Toph Is A Sweetheart, swimming lessons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:28:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25190923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MashpotatoeQueen5/pseuds/MashpotatoeQueen5
Summary: The war is over, and they go to the beach.Toph has something she wants to ask.
Relationships: Aang & Toph Beifong, Aang & Toph Beifong & Katara & Sokka & Suki & Zuko, Toph Beifong & Katara, Toph Beifong & Sokka, Toph Beifong & Suki, Toph Beifong & The Gaang, Toph Beifong & Zuko
Comments: 72
Kudos: 615





	Swimming Lessons

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [this is what it is](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25072702) by [MashpotatoeQueen5](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MashpotatoeQueen5/pseuds/MashpotatoeQueen5). 



> Shout out to Jane, who desperately wanted me to write out Toph learning how to swim. Hope you enjoy my friend <3

It’s warm today. 

Toph can feel it, the heat, beating down onto her skin. Around her, her family is chatting, simple conversations for simple times, their feet brushing through the sand and sending it flying. Soft chatter and soft laughter under some apparent blazing sun.

She breathes it in. It’s still weird, this, these little talks that have nothing to do with the war or strategies for survival, destiny and tactics and battlegrounds.

It’s still weird, because she doesn’t quite know how to make everything inside of her truly believe that they’ve won.

But Aang laughs at something Zuko has said, bright and unfiltered, and Toph smiles as she listens to them talk, stamping small sand sculptures of herself into existence as they walk closer to the shore. It’s  _ good  _ to hear him laugh, especially because he just seemed so  _ drained  _ after his fight with Ozai, quiet and withdrawn and sleeping for hours and hours and hours.

Katara tries to poke her side, and Toph neatly sidesteps, making the older girl let loose an amused huff and Sokka cackle. 

“Are all the statues  _ really  _ necessary, Toph?”

Toph grins, throws her hands behind her head.

“My awesomeness is worthy of a thousand statues, Katara. This is only the  _ start.” _

The waves crashing against the beach are getting louder now. Pushing and pulling, pushing and pulling-

Suki comes to rest an arm on her shoulder. Toph lets her and sticks her tongue out at Katara, who reciprocates in kind.

“Do one of me next?” the older girl asks, sounding vaguely curious. The fabric of her skirt brushes against Toph’s bare shins, and it’s almost strange to feel the soft, thin material rather than the coarse, thick fabric that makes up the older girl’s armour. 

But today isn’t about war. It isn’t about politics. It’s just about  _ them,  _ the saviors of the world and all that junk. Katara had insisted on little vacations for all of them occurring at least once a week after watching everyone devolve into irritable, tired, overworked husks of themselves. 

So Toph focuses, gathers all the little particles beneath her feet, feels them mingling and shifting and coming together, twists her feet  _ juuuust right  _ and-

A collective of appreciative noises resounds through their little group as a full sized sand statue of Suki bursts out of the ground. The Kyoshi Warrior in question seems particularly appeased, laughing and nudging her shoulder.

“Very _ nice. _ Thank you.”

She shrugs, something soft and warm bubbling up inside of her. She likes the control, the demonstration of her mastery, but she also just likes being able to do things for her friends, likes being _ included. _

She spends the rest of the short walk making statues of their merry little band and of the people they’ve met, all in different poses and outfits: Aang petting a chirruping Momo, Katara tugging on Zuko’s ears in apparent frustration, The Boulder in the midst of laughing, Smellerbee eating a bowl of soup.

“I’ve been practicing this one for you, Sokka!” she chirps, grinning not at  _ all  _ mischievously, and then bends up an incredibly wonky and truly terrible statue that only stays standing through sheer force of will.

The whole group bursts into laughter, and Sokka goodnaturedly squawks and starts protesting about how it looks  _ nothing  _ like him, and she and the older boy get into an argument about it, back and forth, back and forth, passing the time.

And then they’re there. At their little spot that they had chosen for themselves, a small cove tucked away from sight that would be easily defendable if they were to be attacked. Not that they  _ will _ be, but some habits die hard, and it can be difficult to relax when you’re out in the open and not disguised. 

Toph breathes, quietly bends in order to dismantle the trail of statues leading to their location and wipe away their footsteps. Then she starts helping Katara unpack the blankets and their lunch, stealing grapes when the older girl is distracted by Aang and Suki pleading for her to judge their sand castle competition.

_ Dorks,  _ she thinks,  _ utter dorks. _

A little farther from the water, Sokka is helping Zuko settle down on his own blanket. They’re chatting, and Sokka is telling some grossly exaggerated tale with one arm flailing in expression and the other gently levering the newly crowned Firelord to the ground. Zuko laughs, and winces, and then laughs some more as the other boy comes to some apparent climax.

Toph lets the sounds wash over her, tries not to pay too much attention to the gaping wound in her friend’s stomach, the way she can feel the still healing muscles pull and go taut and relax again.

Instead she starts haggling Aang and Suki, in the midst of making their castles, frantically gathering wet sand from the shore and dolluping it into their respective piles, hastily forming shapes with their grimy fingers. She can feel Aang, how his heart beats steady, how his enthusiasm reflects in his voice, utterly throwing himself into the competition. She can feel Suki, still trying for her own victory, but also smiling at Aang as he dashes to and fro, throwing himself wholeheartedly into making his kingdom.

Toph suspects the older girl’s main motivations definitely had to do with this, in providing Aang an outlet, in distracting him from the world of responsibilities that so often find their perch on his young shoulders. 

Not that that stops Suki from trying to  _ win,  _ of course, which she eventually does upon Katara’s much anticipated judgement. Aang laughs good naturedly, and Sokka swoops Suki up into a sloppy but enthusiastic twirl, and Zuko calls out his congratulations from where he is lying under his umbrella, eyes closed. 

They eat lunch. They talk about where their next vacation should be, what they should have later on for dinner, whether or not they are excited for any upcoming festivals or celebrations. Toph lets it wash over her, listens in on their squabbling, their jokes and their teasing and their chortles.

She also listens to the ocean, tries to feel out into those watery depths, the way the waves crash over the sand and exert pressure upon them. She tries to imagine it in her mind, water stretching on farther and further into nothing, and cannot. 

She breathes.

There are so many things her parents have not taught her. They never taught her how to write or read, they never taught her how to tie knots or earthbend or cook food or wash her clothes. They never taught her how to fight, how to laugh loudly without a care, how to love with every fiber of her being.

There are so, so many things-

But Toph learns. It’s what she  _ does. _ She puts it upon herself to fill the gaps of her knowledge, to master everything she can get her hands on. Since leaving her parent’s house behind, she has had Aang teach her how to tie the knots necessary for Appa’s saddle, cooked a meal under Katara’s steady hand, held a knife with Suki’s patient instruction, fumbled through clothes washing alongside Zuko, and start to learn to write with Sokka as her teacher.

She’s learning. She’s getting there. She sits on a blanket and lets this gentle bursting  _ love  _ wash over her as her family- her  _ real  _ family- shares jokes and stories and smiles. 

Waves crash along the sand.

Toph licks her lips. “Guys,” she says, and they fall quiet and turn to her, listening, “I want to learn how to swim.”

And for a moment they are silent, and some small part of her whispers  _ this is it, this is it, you’ve become a vulnerability you’ve become a burden and you will be removed- _

_ Shut up,  _ she thinks to that twisted part of herself,  _ you’re wrong. _

And Aang smiles, reaches out and grabs her hand, squeezes it. “Of  _ course  _ we’ll help you learn how to swim, Toph!” he exclaims, and the others fall over themselves to agree as well, and she smiles.

She’s nervous, she realizes, she’s nervous and it’s going to be  _ so weird,  _ just, floating alone in the water with nothing to keep her grounded, but she grits her teeth and stands up with the rest of them, steps out into the low tide and feels the water lap around her shins.

Toph breathes, reaches out and grabs Zuko’s hand, holding tight. The older boy holds back just as fiercely, and together they step deeper into the waves.

There’s some cursing as salt gets into the wound on his chest, but he doesn’t let go.

And Toph learns how to swim, slowly, falteringly. It involves a lot of clinging to Sokka’s forearms and Aang’s bright encouragement, Katara reminding her that she can and _ will _ literally part the ocean around her at the slightest sign of trouble, Suki’s laughter and guiding grip.

It takes a lot of snapping and cursing and vulnerability on Toph’s part, swallowing mouthfuls of saltwater and flailing moments of the occasional panic. She’s sure that her muscles are going to ache tomorrow, that there will be some gentle ribbing from the others about all the times she randomly grabbed onto them and yelled  _ GET ME OUT OF HERE!  _ and then refused to go to shore because  _ no wait I can do this, I can, I will, no pathetic waters gonna get the best of me- _

When she’s a little more confident, a little steadier on her own, and can swim in a wobbly circle between her friends, they start to scatter and do their own things, one person always being sure to stick by her side. She prefers Zuko, because she can  _ hear  _ Aang and Katara building a massive  _ something  _ before them, the way Sokka and Suki are having some sort of crazy diving-race competition thing, and Zuko is the only one she trusts to be sane enough to not pull any stunts

But when Aang swims up to her, calls a cheerful greeting, and starts guiding her away, she doesn’t protest. They clamber onto some sort of massive ice sculpture- the airbender giving a vivid description of every passing object as they climb- and head to the top of what is, apparently, a giant ice water slide.

Her feet are cold. Her  _ butt  _ is cold, but they sit side by side, Aang  _ vibrating  _ with excitement.

She’s a bit excited, too, she thinks. There’s this anticipatory tension fluttering in her stomach.

“Ready?” he asks, and she can imagine him shooting her a massive grin.

She pulls him closer to her side, holds tight.

“As I’ll ever be-”

They shoot off, a half dozen unexpected loops and turns and rushing wind. Aang is screaming with joy and she’s just screaming, and then he yells, “Here comes the drop off! Hold your breath!” and they’re out in the open air.

Aang whoops. The others cheer. Toph holds her breath.

And with a massive splash, they’re in the water. For a moment, she lets herself float still, feels the bubbles pop against her skin, feels the push and pull of the ocean surround her in their gentle embrace. She has no power over this, not really, and it stuns her to realize that she is unafraid.

Then Aang pulls her hands in the right direction, and they swim back up until her head breaches the surface. She’s cursing, loudly, but she’s also laughing and breathless, and all the others are still cheering.

“I am  _ never,”  _ she yells, “doing that again!” She clumsily lifts an arm and smacks Aang across the face with it, but he just giggles and keeps her afloat when she unbalances and almost dips back under.

(She takes the slide three more times.)

And afterwards, afterwards, they play a call and response game. She’s surprisingly skilled at being the finder despite her clumsy movements off dry land, and when she isn’t the chosen caller she tends to stick close to Suki, who doesn’t mind the extra weight, nor the extra trash talking Toph happily shouts at their pursuer.

Call and Response dissolves into a chasing game, and Toph switches to clinging onto Sokka’s back, laughing as he swims like crazy away from whoever is chasing them. He always shouts a warning before diving, she ducks close to become as streamline as possible as he cuts through the water as easily as badgermoles cut through the earth. Over the course of times Sokka and Toph get tagged, they master the skill of the older boy just  _ chucking  _ her at whomever they wish to capture. 

It’s surprisingly effective. And terrifying. And fun. She gets better following the stream of bubbles rushing past her skin and directing her to fresh air.

When her muscles start feeling rubbery, she joins Zuko, where he’s laying on top of the water, letting the buoyancy keep him afloat and avoiding all the chaos their friends are generating across the way. Katara had approved because of his injuries, but had also warned him that when he was more healed that he’d be going _down._

Zuko had laughed, and now they float out in open water, the older boy giving a running commentary of the shoulder war occurring some feet to their left, Sokka holding Suki up and Katara holding up Aang, the ensuing mess of laughter and jeers and flailing limbs.

There’s a massive splash. Zuko duly reports that Katara has played dirty and yanked Sokka’s leg from under him.

“All is fair in love and war,” she solemnly says back, and he laughs. 

After she feels a little less breathless, she joins back in, Aang gracefully giving her his spot on the waterbender’s shoulders. To absolutely no one’s surprise, they become an ultimate team of demolishing everyone in their path, even if they have to do underhanded tactics to do it. 

They are all powerful, sopping wet and laughing, the warmth of the sun streaking across her back and the steady press of the older girl’s shoulders against her thighs.

Finally, they start to wind down, the raging battle for lords of the sea simmers down to all six of them casually bobbing in the rolling waves and watching the clouds pass, chatting and laughing and sharing jokes.

Toph floats. She breathes. She swims.

Her parents never taught her any of this, would never have let her _ have _ this, these undignified snorts and these graceless laughs. These soft moments of shared affection that linger and echo, that hold you so gently. Her parents had taken her vulnerabilities and had tried to form them into a cage. 

But here she is. Here  _ she is. _

At the end of the day, Toph clambers up the waterslide of ice all on her own, rolling her eyes as her friends cheer below. The soles of her feet are cold, but she knows that soon the water will be warm, a thousand little bubbles trickling across her skin.

She carefully sits down, braces herself against the sides, and shoots off.

There is something brilliant growing inside of her, something warm and grown and growing. She swerves with the twists and turns of the slide, feels the wind rush past, feels her own heart pound.

And at the end of it, she soars, higher and higher into open air. Below, her family is watching, waiting to catch her.

Toph holds her breath, lets the warmth of the sun wash over her, and smiles. 


End file.
